Pandemic Influenza Business Preparedness Plan Template

PANDEMIC INFLUENZA BUSINESS PREPAREDNESS PLAN TEMPLATE OUTLINE I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. Introduction Assumptions Communications Managing During a Pandemic Pandemic Response by Pandemic Phase Maintaining Essential Services Monitoring & Reporting VIII. Public Health Measures IX. X. Infection Control Implementation, Testing, and Revising the Plan Appendices A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. Sample Template for Essential Services Assessment Sample Employee Communications Sample NIMS Organizational Chart Sample Action Plans Sample Critical Business Functions Sample Monitoring and Reporting Forms Sample Public Health Measures Sample Tabletop Exercise Pandemic Influenza Business Preparedness Plan Template I. Introduction Business continuity means ensuring that essential business functions can survive a natural disaster, technological failure, human error, or other disruption. Many existing business continuity plans anticipate disruptions such as fires, earthquakes, and floods; these events are restricted to certain geographic areas, and the time frames are fairly well defined and limited. Pandemic flu, however, demands a different set of continuity assumptions since it will be widely dispersed geographically and potentially arrives in waves that could last several months at a time. Depending on the flu strain and based on previous pandemics, public health officials project cumulative absentee rates of 25-30 percent over three to four months. Absentees will include sick employees, and those who must care for others who are sick. Fear will also impact rates of absenteeism. If a pandemic flu strikes, government health officials will issue information, warnings and work with the media to disseminate advice on how to avoid becoming ill. Company managers, human resource departments, and employees should pay close attention to the guidance provided by local and state health departments. In a worse case scenario, “business as usual” may cease. Government health officials may have to implement dramatic measures, including shutting down certain businesses that involve high levels of interaction with the public, such as restaurants and theatres. Health officials may also have to restrict travel, cancel public events such as concerts or sports, and close schools. The size and type of business will be the deciding factors for the type of plan that a business needs to develop. All business continuity plans for a pandemic should include the following components at a minimum:  Provide each employee the resources to prepare themselves or their families  Prevent/minimize the spread of influenza in the workplace  Monitor worker absentee rates  Create a system to notify/share the information with workers during pandemic  Develop a plan to address essential resources to maintain operations This template is designed for guidance on developing a plan and should be modified to fit the specific needs of any business. The documents provided on the CD allow for modifications to fit these specific parameters. The template is one source of guidance which provides options and recommendations for developing a plan. Resources for plan development: http://www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/pandemic-influenza.html II. Assumptions A pandemic flu will spread rapidly and easily from person to person, affecting all businesses due to absenteeism. Businesses that are relied upon by other businesses will be facing the same massive absentee rates, and will be unable to provide essential components to maintain the daily operations. Risk assessments to identify the essential/critical components of your business’ operation need to be conducted. Develop partnerships, alliances, third parties and suppliers to support continuity -2- Pandemic Influenza Business Preparedness Plan Template arrangements that will maintain operations and ensure these components are available during a pandemic. Recognize in your business impact assessment that a pandemic includes:  Healthcare services not being available (they are already full at present with the usual ailments).  Schools, churches and other public places not being open.  Borders are partially or fully closed, especially airports, leaving people (our families, employees, business partners, customers and suppliers) “stranded”.  Essential materials and supplies may be limited due to distribution chains that are affected by the travel restrictions or absentee workers supporting those transportation means.  Essential services around utilities, food distribution/access and banking systems may not be at “normal levels”; access to cash flow could be tight.  People may not be willing to or able to come to work. See Appendix A- Sample Template for Essential Services Assessment III. Communications Communications during a Pandemic involves both internal communications and external communications. Internal communication should be provided to employees to educate them about pandemic influenza and measure they can take to be prepared. See Appendix B- Sample Employee Communication. Risk communication is critical to inform employees regarding changes in the pandemic status. The following is one method for providing such information. Alert: conveys the highest level of importance; warrants immediate action or attention. Advisory: provides key information for a specific incident or situation; might not require immediate action. Update: provides updated information regarding an incident or situation; unlikely to require immediate action. Provide continuous updates through internal & external communications when a pandemic is imminent:  Notification to employees of operational changes  Provide frequent updates about the pandemic status  Provide advisories and alerts as conditions change  Ensure vendors and suppliers have available a dedicated communications contact  Monitor local, state, and federal pandemic updates Using phone systems that can perform automatic dialing from a database with each employees contact number is useful to send notifications and messages about alerts. Many phone systems have the capacity to create a message center for staff to call-in and receive important updates. Computer systems have many options available for alerting and notifying key stakeholders through e-mails, pagers, etc. The use of the company web-site could serve as a portal for sharing information with employees and vendors. -3- Pandemic Influenza Business Preparedness Plan Template Resources Pandemic Updates: World Health Organization (WHO) http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html Centers for Disease Control (CDC) http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/ IV. Managing During a Pandemic During an emergency, employees look to management to provide leadership for the company. Companies that don’t have emergency plans often struggle with the chain of command because the company leaders have not had an opportunity to think through the effects of a crisis. Your company needs to demonstrate to the employees that the leaders have a plan and are able to work together. During a pandemic, many managers may be out sick or at home taking care of ill family. A plan should include redundancy for the specific measures identified as part of the response plan and those additional responsibilities need to be designated in the management structure. Many large organizations, businesses and schools have well developed disaster plans that mirror the federal government’s National Incident Management System (NIMS). NIMS is an emergency management tool that relies on a flexible structure similar to a Business Organizational Chart. Below is an example: COMMAND STAFF: Incident Commander (President/CEO) Public Information Officer (Media/Public Relations) Liaison Officer (Vice President) Safety Officer (Safety Manager) OPERATIONS SECTION: Operations Section Chief (Director of Operations) LOGISTICS SECTION: Logistics Section Chief (Purchasing/Inventory Manager) PLANNING SECTION: Planning Section Chief (Lead Administrator) FINANCE SECTION: Finance Section Chief (Purchasing/Accounting Manager) Organizes and directs all aspects of the incident response Creates and releases upon approval from the incident commander all information to the staff, media and public. Establishes and maintains relationships with outside organizations Ensures the safety of all persons involved with the pandemic Initiates and manages ongoing operations throughout a pandemic Meets the goods, services, and staffing needs of the operation during the pandemic Collects information and resources potentially relevant to the pandemic and company operations Monitors all expenditures and ensures fiscal resource availability during the pandemic -4- Pandemic Influenza Business Preparedness Plan Template However your company decides to structure during an emergency, share this with your employees so that they will have a clear understanding of who has the responsibility for various functions. Once employees are aware of this and know the company has a plan, their fears will be greatly reduced and will be more likely to support the company in an emergency. See Appendix C- Sample NIMS Organizational Chart Resources for Emergency Management: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/index.shtm V. Pandemic Response by Pandemic Phase Currently the WHO has created various phases for a pandemic, but does not always relate to events in Tulsa or at your company. Level 0 (WHO Phase 3)- Novel virus alert- not human-to-human transmission Level 1 (WHO Phase 4)- Confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission of novel flu virus. Level 2 (WHO Phase 5)- Suspected/confirmed cases in the Tulsa area. Level 3 (WHO Phase 5)- Numerous suspected/confirmed cases in the Tulsa area. Business may choose to convert the WHO phase system into levels of response to simplify the notifications to employees. The plan would then include specific local indicators for changing the level of response. There are three examples of phase specific action plans provided in Appendix D. Resources for Pandemic Phases: WHO http://www.who.int/csr/en/ VI. Maintaining Essential Services Utilize the risk assessment to identify the critical components to maintaining your operation. Prioritize these components (services and materials) and begin identifying provisions to support those components during an emergency. The assessment of critical operations needs to include supplies and human resources. Identify the essential staff necessary to continue operations in emergency situations (4 to 6 weeks). Develop a method to cross-train or back-fill these essential employees should the impact of absenteeism during a pandemic minimize worker availability. Look for creative solutions to operational needs such as, creating partnerships with vendors, suppliers, and personnel management agencies, in developing a robust plan. The key to maintaining essential services is to identify the critical components that may become scarce during a pandemic. By identifying these early, you can begin looking for ways to create back-up systems, supplies, and other resources. See Appendix E- Sample Critical Business Functions VII. Monitoring & Reporting Monitoring absenteeism and identifying the number of ill workers will provide useful information regarding operational decisions that need to be made during all phases of a pandemic. Reporting these numbers to the local public health department will also provide them with a community wide surveillance to implement necessary public health measures. For this reason, developing a monitoring and reporting system will be essential for most business continuity of operations. -5- Pandemic Influenza Business Preparedness Plan Template  Businesses should designate a staff person to be the Influenza Manager. This person would be responsible for tracking the employees who call in sick or get ill at work. Weekly or daily reports would be provided to upper management for determining policy issues that may need to be implemented. In addition, these reports should be provided to the local health department for community wide surveillance and could be initiated during the regular flu season. Pandemic reporting will be developed during the alert phases to identify community clusters. Self reporting forms may be made available on-line, and provided to institutional settings, longterm care homes, public schools, responder agencies, and large businesses.  Information generated through this type of integrated surveillance program will be used to: determine when a pandemic begins, track its course globally, nationally, regionally, and locally; guide antiviral use, and evaluate management efforts. See Appendix F- Sample Monitoring and Reporting Forms Resources for Surveillance: WHO http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html CDC http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/ Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) http://www.health.state.ok.us/program/cdd/flu/Oklahoma%20Influenza%20Tracking%20Report.pdf Tulsa Health Department (THD) http://www.tulsabiowatch.com/index.htm VIII. Public Health Measures Access to vaccines and antiviral drugs during a pandemic will be extremely limited, non-medical interventions may be the only way to delay the spread of the disease. Many of the interventions, however, may affect human behavior and human rights and therefore need a strong educational and legal basis. Moreover, most of the interventions are based on limited evidence. Therefore, transparent decision-making and frank information-sharing should go hand-in-hand with the measures discussed in this section. The key to make public health measures effective, involves providing information to staff on the threat of a pandemic, limitations of resources to combat the disease, and educational awareness of the measures that need to be implemented before a pandemic begins. These efforts are intended to modify behavior so that utilizing these measures will be effective. Examples of public health measures include:  Utilize good hygiene by following recommended protection and infection control measures  Minimize exposure by avoiding public gatherings, public places, and areas considered high risk  Update vaccinations including seasonal flu and pneumonia  Keep physically healthy; eat right, drink plenty of fluids, exercise, and get plenty of sleep  Maintain a positive mental attitude  Stay home and seek medical care when sick Utilize experts from the field of public health and emergency management to resolve questions about the plans. Appendix G contains several useful examples of public health measures that can be initiated -6- Pandemic Influenza Business Preparedness Plan Template within the workplace. At a minimum, create signage to place in the workplace for employees and customers recommending good hygiene measures. References for public health measures: Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) http://www.pandemicflu.gov/ CDC http://www.cdc.gov/flu OSDH http://www.health.state.ok.us/program/cdd/flu/index.html THD http://www.tulsa-health.org IX. Infection Control Measures Guidelines for infection control are important to clarify the routes of transmission and the ways to interrupt transmission through measures of hygiene. Infection control is an essential component of pandemic management and a component of public health measures. Utilize training sessions, and signage to make staff aware of the essential measures. Examples of Infection Control Measures; 1. Stay at home when you are sick. If possible, stay away from work, school and from running errands. You will help others from catching your illness. 2. Cover your coughs and sneeze into tissue, or cough into your shirt sleeve. 3. Wash your hands often to avoid spreading and getting germs. 4. Enhance existing housekeeping service by wiping down and disinfecting work areas (i.e. keyboards, telephones, desks, etc.) frequently. 5. Enhance housekeeping services for general public use areas several times throughout the work period. 6. Use personal protective equipment where appropriate to minimize exposure (i.e. gloves- for handling money, masks- for ill employees) References for Infection Control measures: CDC http://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol Virginia Public Health (VA PH) http://www.publichealth.va.gov/infectiondontpassiton/index.htm X. Implementation, Testing, and Revision of the Plan Writing the plan may seem the most difficult, but ensuring the plan works can only be achieved in testing the plan. There are numerous ways available to accomplish this, without having to wait for an actual emergency. Implementing any of the following policy measures during the upcoming flu season will enhance the ability to respond to a pandemic outbreak.     Place signage to stimulate good hygiene Track employee absenteeism Stay home when ill Conduct employee training Testing the plan can also be accomplished by conducting exercises. Exercises range from low stress to full scale, hands on drills. A tabletop exercise is the easiest way to begin testing a plan. This type of exercise involves having discussions regarding a scenario that challenges the plan and the decision makers during an emergency. Functional exercises take on an additional level of complexity, in that -7- Pandemic Influenza Business Preparedness Plan Template they actually require participants to conduct functional components of the plan. This usually involves planning specific scenarios, creating pretend data and present issues that target an area within the plan to be tested. Each of these methods of testing the plan requires extensive planning for the exercise and the evaluation. The evaluation is critical to revising the plan, by capturing actual responses during the exercise or drill objectively. Once this data is captured, an after-action report with recommendations to revising the plan should be completed within a few weeks of the exercise. Assistance for implementing and testing a plan is available through Emergency Management both federal and local levels, and public health. Additionally, there are many consultant agencies available to assist in exercise design and facilitation. Included in this plan is a brief tabletop scenario and discussion questions that can be tailored to your companies specific plan. Instructions on facilitating the exercise are also included. See Appendix HSample Tabletop Exercise. Resources for Implementation White House http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/pandemicflu/ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4919 Additional Resources on the workshop CD: Business Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist, DHHS Pandemic Influenza Fact Sheet, CDC Avian Influenza Fact Sheet, CDC Influenza Questions & Answers, OSDH Family Emergency Health Information Sheet, CDC -8-